adey m

The FROG Lysander is a Mark 1 and Mark 3.

The FROG model is a Mark 1 and Mark 3 with Mercury engine and cowling bulges. As Dogsbody said the Matchbox Lysander is a Mark 2 with Perseus engine and no cowling bulges. Both of the old Airfix 1/72 Lysanders were the Mark 2 with no cowling bulges.

The Mark 1 and Mark 3 engine cowlings had bulges over the cylinder heads, the Mark 2 engine cowling had no bulges 🙂

Following on from Dave's interesting suggestion I have posted some contempary photos of the real aircraft alongside my model in similar scenes. Hope you found these of interest. adey

Hi Kev, I am also using postimages.org now to post my photos 😀

Thank you so much JWM, I have sorted the image problem now

Thank you Kev. I have now fixed the problem by using a new photo host. Thank you John.

Thanks Dave, now I have sorted the images issue I will see what I can do with your interesting suggestion.

Images should now be visible straight away folks 😃

I agree, I don't know why this has started happening, I use village.photos, always been okay in past. I may need to look at another photo host. I am really upset that some are having trouble to see my posted photos.

Thank you. It is beautifully moulded and the parts go together accurately, but there are no locating pins to align parts when joining. The main wings are butt jointed to fuselage but a spar gives them strength. The hardest part of the build is the main undercarriage, the kit's struts are too thin and weak, I replaced them with thicker strut and used brass pins at their joints. The engines and seats are resin and parts of the cockpit are etched brass. Luckily the Harrow was surprisingly well photographed during its short service career as a bomber, so there is plenty of reference available. The kit decals are excellent.

I too cannot see my photos straight away on my Galaxy smart phone, but my wife's Apple i phone shows them straight away. They also appear straight away on our Windows 7 PC. Seems to be a problem with certain devices unfortunately.

May I present my reworked Valom Handley Page Harrow which I originally built in 2020. The build was posted onto Britmodeller back then but I will touch on a few construction details. Valom are to be praised for bringing us a very good quality injection kit of a subject that is not well known about. The surface detail replicating the fabric is superb. The things which I had to improve on where the weak underscale undercarriage struts and to shorten the nose by 4 mm. I removed the dorsal turret from my original Harrow and used the fairing that comes in the kit instead. I repainted my Harrow to represent a Mk 2 of 215 Bomber Squadron based just 20 miles away from me at RAF Driffield, East Yorkshire in 1937. I brush-painted the model using Humbrol enamel paint colours Light Earth, Dark Green and Matt Black. I have based my Harrow on one of these, note that the fuselage interior was white. Note also the two different camouflage patterns used on different aircraft. Scratchbuilt interior added to the cockpit detail provided in the kit. The large cylinder behind the cockpit was a fuel tank. The cockpit module with wireless operator and navigation table behind the pilot. The cockpit module in position. Note that bomb bay starts behind the wireless operator, Valom has the bomb bay doors extending too far forward. Shortening the nose by 4 mm gives the model a more accurate outline. That has been my Harrow heavy bomber, hope you like it. adey

You are correct, Matchbox do provide both noses in the kit, luckily I kept the Mk 2 nose and perspex in my spares so was able to use those, unfortunately though I could not use the original join location as it goes through the cockpit so I had to carry out some precision surgery further forward. Then I had to make a hole in top of the fuselage for the turret to drop into.

Yes Graham, there were many variants and variations of the Halifax, some Mk 2s had an aerial mast above the cockpit and some did not, like mine. The Mk 5 was the Merlin-engined version with square fins, this version also had different main undercarriage to the other versions.